In compliance with the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, WhatsApp has banned more than 76 lakh Indian accounts in the month of February.
WhatsApp’s Account Bans and Compliance Reports
The instant messaging leader in the monthly compliance report revealed that it has banned 7,628,000 accounts between February 1-29 period and out of these, 1,424,000 of these accounts were proactively banned, which means they were banned before any reports from the users.
With more than 500 million users in the country, the company received a record 16,618 complaint reports in February in the country, and out of these, “actioned” records were 22.
Going a level deep, “Accounts Actioned” are those reports where WhatsApp took remedial action based on the report and taking action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result.
WhatsApp’s Grievance Handling and User Protection
The company said that “We respond to all grievances received except in cases where a grievance is deemed to be a duplicate of a previous ticket. An account is ‘actioned’ when an account is banned or a previously banned account is restored, as a result of a complaint”.
Speaking on the measures the company takes in addition to the regular safety features and controls, the company said that “We employ a team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments to oversee these efforts.”
